Friday, November 20, 2009

Sparkly Vampires and Flesh Wounds

Am reeling in abject horror at the cash cow that is Twilight. About two years ago I caught my fellow classmate reading Twilight in my Medieval Studies class and she described it as 'good' so naturally I read it. In all fairness the first Twilight book is entertaining. Long, drawn-out, filled with 'Edward is HAWT' and not much of a plot but entertaining. Then I learned there was more and more to be written. For the most part over the last two years I ignored the hype, hearing bits and pieces about it because frankly it gets shoved down your throat everytime you leave the house (and the Twihards who exist in droves don't help things). Then as the fanbase grew to terrifying proportions I reread Twilight (and New Moon AND Eclipse and because I didn't want to waste anymore money of this virulent CRAP I read a summary of Breaking Dawn)and began to pick up some really disturbing underlying messages; physical appearance trumps connection through shared experiences and any other normal, sane means of establishing a romantic stable relationship. How many times do we have to hear about Edwards physical 'perfection'? Even more disturbing are the nearly mysogynist aspects of Bella's character whom we are supposed to identify with. She is introduced as a mature, intelligent 17 year old girl and before I went through the series I thought, 'oh good, here is a story with the potential that this average, ordinary girl will overcome great hardships and grow as a human being to become a independent, strong, intelligent woman'.

Dear God, how wrong I was.

I slogged through Twilight and New Moon and Eclipse before I realized that no Bella would never grow as a human being, no Bella has no personality, NO Bella will never learn how self-destructive and damaging it is to pin your entire happiness completely and wholly on another person and finally NO this is not a good series and please don't call it literature.What I did take away was; aging is bad, staying young forever, even at a horrible cost, is good, hotness is all that matters, learning independence puts the kibosh you winning a hot, white- knight guy, that men like it when you are helpless and stupid (are we stuck in the 50's or something?)that apparently the undead can impregnate a woman, suicide is emo and cool, vampires sparkle, aaaand getting pregnant is bad (like having the child eat it's way out of your uterus Alien-style bad).As one critic said before it wouldn't be so bad if this book was marketed as just a plain-ol' adult book meant for idle entertainment like on the level of a Harlequin Romance but the fact that this book targets teenage girls is horrifying. The fact that some Twilight fans are so psychotic they commit physical VIOLENCE over this book is terrifying(type Twilight Violence into Google). That this makes a social comment on the culture of America is a sad, sad thing.

Which brings me to wonder how the HELL did Stephenie Meyer become an instant success that has pretty much set her for life for fame and fortune when people with actual talent can go a lifetime without ever getting published or recognized? This is what I absolutely HATE about the arts in general. Since the modernism of art nobody knows the difference between talent and shit that should be burned anymore. At the college a lot of the art shows include things that make me go, 'WTF is that?' why is sticking pubic hair on a computer mouse 'art' and why the fuck is this person getting thousands of dollars for it? (no, seriously that was an exibit) Why is standing on a block of ice while playing the violin make you famous for centuries to come because it's 'modernism'? Why is a sparkling vampire so damned popular when Anne Rice's Lestat kicks the crap out of Edward and his blah non-personality, non-fanged 'vegetarianism' and honestly I haven't been a Lestat fan since I was sixteen and went through a vampire phase in which now I look back and shake my head at my teenage girl silliness (and even in my most extreme obsession with popular culture I never beat somebody upside the head with a book because they didn't agree with me). There isn't much more to be said on the subject other than I shake my head at you America and all your silly ways.

On a more personal note/entry I am volunteering at one of the libraries in town because this doing nothing/not working is driving me towards madness and depression. Depression for sure because I think I crossed that madness line some years ago. Its hard to sleep at night when I close my eyes and all I can think is 'where the hell is my life going?' and 'I don't think I'm ever going to find a place to fit in'.Also have been victim of stupid self injury( I'm BELLA, har har); dropped a plate and sliced my finger open while doing the dishes, got a wood sliver shoved into my pinky toe from my freak wooden flooring and now I will wear shoes in the house instead of socks and wore shoes that gave my heels big fat blisters when I walked to college and back yesterday.